Please turn to the Book of Acts, chapter 2. We will read from verse 1.
And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place.
And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.
And when this sound was heard, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speaking in his own language.
And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying, Behold, are not all these that speak Galilaeans?
And how hear we, every man in our own language wherein we were born?
Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia,
in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
Cretans and Arabians—we hear them speaking in our tongues the mighty works of God.
And they were all amazed, and were perplexed, saying one to another, What meaneth this?
But others mocking said, They are filled with new wine.
But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spake forth unto them, saying, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and give ear unto my words.
For these are not drunken, as ye suppose; seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
But this is that which hath been spoken through the prophet Joel.
And it shall be in the last days, saith God,
I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all flesh:
And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
And your young men shall see visions,
And your old men shall dream dreams:
Yea and on My servants and on My handmaidens in those days
Will I pour forth of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
And I will show wonders in the heaven above,
And signs on the earth beneath;
Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke:
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the day of the Lord come,
That great and notable day.
And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Verse 33:
Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear.
Verse 36:
Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.
Please turn also to 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 12 and 13.
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Last night, we mentioned that, according to Luke, our Lord Jesus began both to do and to teach in His own person. But in the Book of Acts, our Lord Jesus continues to do and to speak.
Strictly speaking, the Book of Acts should not be called The Acts of the Apostles. Originally, you do not find that title in the manuscripts. Strictly speaking, it should be called the acts of our risen Lord Jesus, by His Spirit, through His church.
It is still the same Lord Who is speaking and Who is acting. The only difference is that once He did it in His own physical body; now He is doing it in His mystical Body.
For this reason, it is very important for us today to know what this Body is, how this Body is formed, and how it functions. The Lord Jesus is today speaking and doing in that Body.
How important it is that, by the grace of God, we will give Him that Body—that we will be that Body, or be in that Body—so that He is able to continue and finish what He is speaking and what He is doing.
After His resurrection, He spent forty days appearing to His disciples, speaking to them the things concerning the kingdom of God.
In those forty days, He prepared His disciples for the day of Pentecost. He drew them out; He lifted them out of the realm of the physical into the realm of the spiritual.
He delivered them out of the flesh into the Spirit. He put them upon resurrection ground so that they might become that new vessel which He was making.
Then, for ten days, the one hundred and twenty people waited in Jerusalem, making themselves ready for Christ.
So we mentioned last night that those fifty days were very important days. These were the days in which the Lord Jesus prevailed, and His people travailed with Him for the birth of the church, which is the Body of Christ.
Now, we cannot go back. We have to go on.
One hundred and twenty people assembled in that upper chamber in Jerusalem. When the Lord Jesus walked on earth, there must have been more than one hundred and twenty people following Him.
At one time, the Bible says that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren, probably at the time of His ascension. Surely there were more than five hundred brothers.
But out of those who followed the Lord, there were one hundred and twenty who gave themselves to continue in prayer for ten days. Now, I wonder—perhaps some of the five hundred intended to do this long—but after a day or two, or after a few days, probably they could not stay any longer, and they began to scatter.
So when it came to the day of Pentecost, only one hundred and twenty were there. They were there, continuing in prayer.
Look at these one hundred and twenty people. Who were they? Among them were the twelve apostles. Whether Matthias is counted as one of the twelve depends upon your interpretation, but there were the twelve apostles.
These twelve apostles were people who had been with the Lord Jesus since the days of John the Baptist until the day He was taken up. For over three years, these people knew the Lord Jesus.
They heard the call of discipleship. They left everything to follow the Lord. They were with the Lord when the Lord was speaking; they were with the Lord when the Lord was doing. They were with the Lord through His death and His resurrection.
They were with the Lord during those forty days of His appearances, and they were together in prayer for ten days. Wonderful people.
These twelve apostles had a good background, a history with the Lord. Can you find any twelve people who had a better background, a more intimate history with the Lord, than these twelve apostles? It is not easy to find.
There were also some women there. These women were the same women you find in Luke 8, who ministered unto the Lord and to His disciples during the earthly days of our Lord.
Our Lord and His disciples travelled around, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and these women ministered to the Lord and to the disciples.
When the disciples, the apostles, were so frightened, even unto death, some of these women—considered by some as the weaker sex—were there at the cross.
They saw the body of the Lord Jesus buried, and they came early in the morning to anoint Him. They were the women who saw the Lord before the others, and they were given the message for the disciples of our Lord.
The Lord said, “I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.” These were wonderful women. They were there.
Not only were these women there; the Bible says that the mother of Jesus was there, and His brethren were there.
The mother of Jesus, Mary—you have the most blessed among all women. How she gave her body to God, that out of her womb the Son of God might come to be a man.
A sword entered into her soul, but she was willing for it to enter. Wonderful woman.
And His brethren were there. These brethren, you know, did not believe the Lord when the Lord was living. They even spoke to Him sarcastically: “If You want to be famous, do not hide Yourself in the hill country of Galilee. Go to Jerusalem at the feast. Show Yourself, and then You will become famous.”
But strangely, there they were. After His resurrection, something happened. Of course, the Lord appeared Himself to His brother James.
Two of His brethren in the flesh, as we know, wrote two books in the New Testament: the Epistle of Jude and the Epistle of James. They turned completely to the Lord, and they gave themselves completely.
And besides these, there were others. Certainly all the rest of the one hundred and twenty people were those who had believed in the power of our Lord Jesus.
These one hundred and twenty people were together for ten days, giving themselves to continued prayer. You cannot find a congregation in the whole world more spiritual, or better, than this congregation of one hundred and twenty people.
Anyone would be satisfied with such a congregation. We would say, “What a privilege to be in that congregation. What more do I want?” Such wonderful people, together with one accord. Wonderful congregation.
Surely God could use this congregation of one hundred and twenty people to be His witness to the whole world. But the Lord said, “Wait.”
Here was a congregation of one hundred and twenty members, the best you could ever have on this earth, and yet the Lord said, “Not enough.”
What the Lord wants is not a congregation. A congregation cannot be that vessel through which He can continue to speak and to act. He needs a Body.
We would be satisfied with a congregation if we could get the best members. But the Lord Jesus is not satisfied with the best congregation in this world, even with all good members. He wants a Body.
Because only a Body can be that vessel through which He can express Himself. Dear brothers and sisters, we must see the difference between a congregation and a Body.
The difference between a congregation and a Body is the difference between heaven and earth. A congregation can be organized, financed, and managed; but the Body must be born by the Spirit.
A congregation may be a gathering of many superior individuals. When you look at each individual, every individual may be excellent. They may come together and be very wonderful, but they remain one hundred and twenty individual members.
They may come together and pray, but they are not one Body. They are still one hundred and twenty individual members. But a Body with one hundred and twenty members is different.
It is not merely a matter of congregating. It is a matter of being one. Even when they are not together, they are one. It is organic, not organizational.
There is a unity there which you do not find in a congregation.
What the Lord is looking for as a continuation of Himself on earth is not a congregation of many individuals, but a Body. Because what He wants is a Body, and only a Body can continue His speaking and His acting, there is a day of Pentecost.
Pentecost is the day when the Body was born, when the church was born. Dear brothers and sisters, the church cannot be organized. It is a living people. If you organize it, it is a congregation; but if it is born, it is a Body.
Here you find a congregation of one hundred and twenty people—excellent people. They prayed together with one accord and in a good spirit. But the Lord said, “That is only preparation. That is not it.”
When the day of Pentecost was fulfilled—that is, when the fiftieth day came—they were together, one hundred and twenty people, still praying together.
Now, they must have met very early in the morning. I do not know how early, but it must have been very early. Anyway, they were together in one place.
What happened? There was a sound coming from heaven, as of a rushing, mighty wind. In different versions, you will find different descriptions: “as of a mighty wind,” “the rushing of a mighty wind,” and so forth.
But, as a matter of fact, in the original, the idea is the sound as of a continuous, mighty breath. It filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Then there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire—not fire, but as of fire—and it came upon each one. Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now, that is the day of Pentecost. Dear brothers and sisters, what do you think happened there?
Here was the sound. Here were the tongues as of fire. Because the sound filled the whole house, and because the tongues came upon every one of them, they began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
But what do you think? You hear the sound. You see the fire. But is that all? Is this what it is? Why the sound? Why the fire? What is the real meaning behind the sound and the fire?
You know, very often we are occupied with the sound and the fire, so that we forget the meaning of the sound and the fire.
As G. Campbell Morgan said, “How often we remember the incidental and forget the essential.”
Yes, there was a sound, and it was like a mighty breath. But that is not really the baptism. Then there were tongues, as of fire, coming upon them. That was a gift, or a manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
But, dear brothers and sisters, what happened on that day was more than just a sound and fire. What happened on that day was that they were baptized with the Holy Spirit.
And what is it to be baptized with the Holy Spirit? A Body was formed. That is what it is: a Body was formed.
You know, dear brothers and sisters, we are often attracted by the outward, and very often we begin to lose sight of what God has really done to us.
On the day of Pentecost, something tremendous happened—not just a particular manifestation, but something tremendous and essential happened.
How it happened was this: these people, the one hundred and twenty, were baptized into one Body. In one Spirit, they were baptized into one Body.
They were no longer merely a congregation of one hundred and twenty members. They were now a Body with one hundred and twenty members. That is what happened on the day of Pentecost.
Other people saw and heard the sound. In your version, it probably says, “And when this sound was heard.” But strictly speaking, most likely these one hundred and twenty people heard the sound because they were in the room.
They saw the tongues as of fire falling upon them. But the rest of the people heard the report—the rumor—that something had happened in that upper room, and it spread.
So people began to gather together. How could all those people gather in that upper room? There was no room for them. Evidently, because of what had happened, the report spread, and people began to gather.
They moved from that upper room to somewhere near the temple—perhaps in the temple area, perhaps in Solomon’s Porch; I do not know. Only there could you gather thousands of people. In an upper room, it would have been impossible.
It happened very early in the morning, the report spread, and people gathered together. When they gathered, it was not in the upper room but somewhere in the temple area, toward the morning sacrifice at nine o’clock.
The inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judaea probably had not heard the original sound, because they were not in the house. They did not see the tongues as of fire upon the heads of the one hundred and twenty people. By that time, the fire was probably gone.
What they saw and heard was not the rushing wind nor the tongues of fire. What they saw and heard were the one hundred and twenty people on fire for the Lord, speaking of the mighty works of God.
So you see, the outward appearance was different, but the essential reality remained the same. Here were one hundred and twenty people who had become one Body in Christ, and Christ in them. That is what really happened.
What is Pentecost? What is the meaning of baptism in the Holy Spirit? What is the spiritual significance of Pentecost?
People began to gather, and these one hundred and twenty people were speaking in their own dialects. Now, I do not know exactly how it worked.
Think of it: one hundred and twenty people were speaking, and thousands of people gathered around them. They heard them speaking of the mighty works of God in their own dialect.
How did it work? Suppose one hundred and twenty people were all speaking at the same time, all in different dialects, and people gathered around them. They could not hear anything because there would be confusion.
So how did it happen? I do not know. Perhaps these one hundred and twenty people each began speaking in one dialect, and people naturally gathered around the person who was speaking their dialect. There may have been small groups here and there, so that everybody could hear and there would be no confusion. I do not know; I am only thinking aloud.
But anyway, you find that these thousands of people gathered together, and they heard them speaking of the mighty works of God in their own dialect. That was wonderful.
Why tongues on the day of Pentecost? You cannot help but go back to Genesis.
In Genesis, the people of the world gathered themselves together with one mind to build a tower that would reach heaven, in order to make a name for themselves. God disturbed that and scattered them over the whole earth.
It was a sign of judgment. When God first created man, we all spoke the same tongue. We could understand one another. But because men rebelled against God, speaking one language and building together, they tried to build a tower for themselves against God.
So God disturbed them by giving them different tongues, so that one could not understand the other, and they scattered. Tongues became a sign of the curse. It was a sign of sin.
But now God is reversing the whole thing. The people were scattered and divided because of different tongues; now God gives the gift of tongues to draw them together.
Instead of being a sign of judgment, it becomes a sign of grace. Instead of scattering, it begins to gather people together. Out of every nation, every tongue, every people, and every tribe, He gathers people unto Himself.
That is the truth. That is the reason why, on the day of Pentecost, the gift of tongues was given: to reverse the curse and to gather people together.
What is the meaning of baptism with the Holy Spirit? What does baptism give to us?
Peter said that the people were amazed and perplexed because they had never known such a thing. Some of them began to mock: “These people are full of new wine.”
So Peter and the eleven stood up. No longer Peter alone, but Peter and the eleven. Why? They were a Body now.
Peter and the eleven stood up, and he began to tell the people, “These are not drunken, as ye suppose, because this is only the third hour”—that is, nine o’clock in the morning.
According to Jewish custom, before the morning prayer, they would not eat anything or drink anything. So it could not be that these people were drunk, because it was only nine o’clock in the morning.
“These people are not drunken, but this is that which was spoken through the prophet Joel,” in Joel 2:28:
I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all flesh:
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
And whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
What is it? “This is that.” These people were not drunk with wine. These people were experiencing what God had prophesied through Joel: the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had been poured out upon them. That is what it is.
But, dear brothers and sisters, read very carefully. Is this that?
When you find that the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh, young men shall see visions and old men shall dream dreams. But on the day of Pentecost, there were no visions and no dreams. Instead, you had tongues.
In other words, it is not the outward appearance. The outward appearance may change. God may give signs differently at different times, but the essential reality remains.
Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear.
God had exalted our Lord Jesus to His right hand, and He received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, which He poured out. That is what you see and hear.
Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.
Whenever you find the word “therefore,” you know it continues what was said before. “Therefore” is a consequence. There is a cause; therefore, there is a result.
Here, the word “therefore” connects with verse 33, because verses 34 and 35 are parenthetical. David has not ascended into heaven, but he says:
The Lord said unto my Lord,
Sit Thou on My right hand,
Till I make Thine enemies the footstool of Thy feet.
That is a parenthetical explanation. It is the Lord Who has been exalted to the right hand of God, not David.
Now, what is the meaning of the Lord being at the right hand of the Father, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? What is the meaning of it?
Let it be known that God has made this Jesus, Whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
You remember, when the Lord was ascending, these Galileans were looking up. The Lord was taken up, and they saw Him going up. But then a cloud came and received Him out of their sight. They could not see Him any longer.
He must have been going up and up and up, but they could not see Him anymore. How did they know for sure that the Lord had arrived at the right hand of the Father?
They saw Him go up perhaps only halfway, or perhaps only a little distance. Then they could not see Him. How could they be sure that this risen Lord had been exalted at the right hand of the Father and made by the Father both Christ and Lord over all?
The proof is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. If the Lord had not been made Lord and Christ over all, the Holy Spirit would not have been sent.
The very coming down of the Holy Spirit proves the exaltation of Jesus as Lord.
In Psalm 2, you find these words:
Yet I have set My king
Upon My holy hill of Zion.
I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said unto Me, Thou art My Son;
This day have I begotten Thee.
Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance,
And the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.
Of course, Zion here does not point to the earthly Zion; it points to the heavenly Zion. God has anointed our Lord Jesus.
If you connect this with Psalm 133, you find that the anointing oil was poured upon Aaron’s head, and it flowed down to his beard and down to the skirt of his garments.
When the Lord was anointed there in heaven, God anointed Him as Lord of all, and that precious anointing oil flows down to the Body. That is the picture.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the result of the exaltation of Christ. To put it another way, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is for the exaltation of Christ.
What is the meaning of baptism with the Holy Spirit? The meaning of baptism with the Holy Spirit is that we may see Christ as the Lord. That is the first meaning.
In 1 Corinthians 12, it says that no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except in the Holy Spirit. It is not merely a matter of words. It is a matter of reality.
How can you say, “Jesus is Lord,” with all reality? It is the Holy Spirit Who enables you to see, to announce, and to declare that Jesus is Lord.
So the first meaning of baptism in the Holy Spirit is this: Jesus is Lord.
If a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, he should see Jesus as the Lord. If a person does not see Jesus as Lord, if he does not honor our Lord Jesus as the Lord and the Head, he is not filled with the Holy Spirit.
How can we be filled with the Holy Spirit if we cannot see that Jesus is Lord? If we truly see Jesus as Lord, we will be filled.
Instead of seeking an experience, seek to see Jesus as Lord. Then you will experience the filling of the Holy Spirit.
That is the first meaning of Pentecost, the first meaning of baptism in the Holy Spirit. Christ Jesus must be Lord. He must be Head over all things to the church before the Body can be formed.
In other words, the Head must be in His place; then the Body will function. On the day of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was the fruit of the exaltation of Christ, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit should bring us under the Headship of Christ.
That is the first meaning. The second is found in 1 Corinthians 12:
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
What is the meaning of Pentecost? That is the meaning of baptism in the Holy Spirit: in one Spirit, we were baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks.
On the day of Pentecost, the Jews were brought in. The one hundred and twenty were Jews, and the three thousand were Jews—Jews from the Dispersion, no doubt.
But in the house of Cornelius, you have the Gentiles. In the whole Bible, only in these two places—Acts 2 and Acts 10—do you find baptism with the Holy Spirit in this corporate sense.
Aside from these two places, baptism with the Holy Spirit is never used in this way. Why? Because on the day of Pentecost, the Jews were brought in; and in the house of Cornelius, the Gentiles, the other part, were brought in.
When Jews and Gentiles were baptized by the Spirit into one Body, the Body was complete in its representative composition.
Strictly speaking, Pentecost cannot be repeated. Strictly speaking, baptism with the Holy Spirit is a corporate experience, not merely an individual experience.
We were all baptized into one Body. We are all one Body in Christ. Now, that is baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Of course, that does not mean that we cannot and should not have certain experiences. It does not mean that. What I am trying to say is that we have to see the corporate side of this.
The baptism with the Holy Spirit is for the whole church. It is a corporate experience, not an individual experience.
Let me go back a little. The experience of the disciples concerning the Holy Spirit came in stages.
First, during the earthly days of our Lord Jesus, in view of the death of our Lord Jesus, these disciples must have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit.
Do not ask me to explain more; I cannot. But we have to believe it this way. People such as John certainly must have been regenerated. You cannot postpone their regeneration until after the death of the Lord Jesus.
“He that is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Surely these disciples were born of the Spirit during the earthly days of our Lord Jesus, in view of His death.
Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is connected with the death of our Lord Jesus. The Lord said, “If I be lifted up,” and as Moses lifted up the serpent, so the Son of man must be lifted up, and all who look to Him shall live.
It is on the ground of the death of our Lord Jesus that the Holy Spirit regenerates us. Surely the early disciples had this experience, even before the cross was historically accomplished. That is all I can say.
Then, on the day of resurrection of our Lord Jesus, the Lord appeared to His disciples. He breathed into them and said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.”
This was the fulfillment of His promise to His disciples in John 14 through John 16. The Comforter would come and dwell within them.
So, with these early disciples, their experience of the indwelling Holy Spirit came on the day of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus.
That is the second step, is it not? Their regeneration was connected with the death of Christ. Their receiving the indwelling Holy Spirit as a Person, as the Comforter within, was on the basis of the Lord’s resurrection.
Without the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, how could one hundred and twenty people be together for ten days? Not even for ten hours!
You know, when the Lord was with them, how often they quarrelled among themselves. But now there were no more problems. They were under the Holy Spirit. They could pray together with one accord for ten days.
Can you do that without the Holy Spirit? You cannot. So you find that they had the Holy Spirit within. They were not only regenerated by the Holy Spirit, but they had the indwelling Holy Spirit on the day of resurrection.
Then they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Let me use another illustration. Here is a cup. In the cup, you pour some water. There is already water in the cup, but it has not come to the brim, nor has it overflowed.
This was the condition of the disciples before Pentecost. These cups had water in them. They all had water in them, but they were not overflowing.
Then, on the day of Pentecost, it was as if a shower came and so much more was poured into these cups that they were filled to overflowing.
That is, in other words, the work of the Holy Spirit reached its corporate fullness on the day of Pentecost.
What was the experience of the three thousand who heard the gospel on the day of Pentecost? Did they have to go through these stages one, two, and three?
The Lord had already died. He had already risen. He had already ascended. Everything had been accomplished. The Holy Spirit had come.
Did they have first to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, then wait for a certain period to know the indwelling Holy Spirit, and then wait for another period to experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit?
The Bible does not say that. On the contrary, what Peter preached to these people was very direct. You remember what he said: “Repent.”
Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto Him.
Repent. Be baptized. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The gift of the Holy Spirit here does not refer to the diverse gifts of the Holy Spirit. It refers to the Holy Spirit Himself as the gift.
This promise is for you, for your children, for those who are near, and for those who are far away. In other words, their experience of the Holy Spirit could be, and should be, one.
We will consider this later, not this morning. But the three thousand people did not experience the Holy Spirit in stages.
The one hundred and twenty received the Holy Spirit in His fullness over a period of time. The three thousand were regenerated on that day, received the indwelling Holy Spirit on that day, and were brought into the Body by the Holy Spirit on that day.
They became members of the Body of Christ. The Body grew from one hundred and twenty members to three thousand one hundred and twenty members within a day.
That is what happened.
Dear brothers and sisters, what is baptism with the Holy Spirit? It brings us into a real recognition of Jesus as the Lord, our Head; and it brings us into the Body as members one of another.
Now the Lord Jesus can continue to do, because this Body is none other than Himself in corporate expression. That is the essential reality.
But, of course, that does not mean there are no manifestations. Surely there will be.
On the day of Pentecost, the gift of tongues was given for a purpose: to gather those scattered people together in the Body.
Then, in 1 Corinthians 12, you find that the Holy Spirit distributes gifts according to what pleases Him, for the building up of the Body.
Let us use another illustration. In the tabernacle, or in the temple, after everything was made according to the pattern and everything was set up in order, something still had to be done before that tabernacle or temple became alive.
What was it? Everything had to be anointed. The furniture had to be anointed. The priests had to be anointed. The anointing of all the furniture and the priests brought everything into life.
So it is with us. When we receive the Holy Spirit, what happens? He quickens us into life.
In other words, we become members of the Body. Every member has a function. So the Holy Spirit, in filling us, activates that function by bringing forth a gift.
That is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. It is not your manifestation, nor my manifestation. It is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit—how He manifests Himself through these members.
So here you find these members activated and functioning. But these gifts are not given for personal display. The gifts are given for the building up of the Body.
There will be manifestations, but remember: the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not the same. One is primary; the other is secondary.
In other words, the Holy Spirit Himself is the gift of God. Because you have received the Holy Spirit as the gift of God, He will give gifts according to His will.
All these manifestations are for the edifying, the building up, of the Body of Christ.
Thank God, we are in the Body. But how we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit in order that we may be living, functioning members.
What do you mean by being filled with the Holy Spirit? I mean that you are under His control. If you really give yourself to the Lord and are under the control of the Holy Spirit, He will activate you as a living, functioning member.
If you are not filled with the Holy Spirit, if you are not under His control, then you are a member, but a non-functioning member—almost dying. That is the difference.
I do not know whether, by putting it together in this way, it puts everything into a better perspective. I hope so.
But what God is really after is more than a particular experience. It is more than a manifestation of one kind or another. What God is really after is a Body that functions under the Head, so that the Head is able to continue doing everything.
If we do not see this, and we try to lay hold of the secondary or the incidental, I am afraid we miss God’s real purpose.
May the Lord really help us to enter a little into what God is after: how the Body is formed, and how the members are activated into function together under the Head, so that the Body is built up.
Now, that is the beginning of the church. Shall we pray?
Our heavenly Father, our one desire is to see what Thou art really after.
Lord, we pray that we may see that Thou art after a Body—a living Body under the living Head.
Thou dost desire to continue to do and to speak through this Body. O that we may be filled with Thy Spirit as functioning members of the Body, through which Thou art able to express Thyself.
And Lord, it is all for Thy sake and for Thy glory. We pray that we may be delivered from confusion, that we may really know Thy mind.
O Lord, do help us. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.